A PROMINENT community volunteer who served his village for years has died aged 54.

Mike Hudson was a founding member, director and trustee of the Marcham Community Group, founded in 2010.

His work included running a minibus service for the elderly, providing financial advice to the group and also the opening and administering of the Marcham Village Shop, opened in July 2012.

Mr Hudson, friends said, was a well-known face around Marcham and his barbecue had been wheeled out for many village events over the years.

He also ran his own business, Assured Investment Consultants Limited, since 1995 and was a financial advisor for some four decades.

Michael John Hudson was born in Aldermaston, Berkshire, on September 17 1959, to parents Ken and Bunty.

He and his younger sister Margaret lived there with their parents until 1967, when they moved to Benson, Oxfordshire.

There, he attended Benson Primary School and later the Abbey School, in Berinsfield, before finally attending the Peers School, in Littlemore. He was also an alter boy at Benson’s parish church.

After leaving school at 18, he took a job at Halifax Building Society, in Abingdon, and on his first day met his 18-year-old future wife, Jenny, when she showed him to his desk.

By August 1980 they had married and moved in to a flat in Abingdon. Because of company rules regarding marriage, Mr Hudson moved to Halifax’s Oxford branch, but later left to work for Scottish Amicable Insurance and then later for Assured Investments.

He was there first as a financial advisor and then as the sole director.

In 1981 he and his wife bought a house in Grove, but moved back to Abingdon in 1984. The couple’s first daughter, Natalie, was born in 1985, followed by Katie in 1988.

The family moved to Marcham in 1999 and Mr Hudson began what was to become a long service to the community by volunteering to drive the elderly to shopping trips in the village minibus. This was followed by his joining the Marcham Community Group in 2010, of which he became a stalwart.

In his spare time Mr Hudson played golf, was a skilled cook and also followed Formula 1.

He celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary with his wife and daughters with holiday to New York.

Michael Hudson died on May 22 in the John Radcliffe Hospital, after a long period of illness. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

A funeral service took place on June 2 at All Saints’ Church, Marcham.